Wildlife Films: Seeing But Not Always Believing

Wildlife documentaries come with the promise that what you’re seeing and hearing is genuine — but that’s not always the case, according to a new book by a veteran environmental filmmaker Chris Palmer.

“When it plunges its head into the entrails of a dead elk … it could be there are M&Ms that have been put into the … elk so that the animal feed on it,” he says. “It could be that it’s been made hungry. It could be that behind the cameraman there’s a trainer giving it signals.”